Anybody have a datasheet or pinout for this Zoran ZR36707 chip?
Zoran's website is pretty worthless, and the datasheet sites bring up
sheets for different Zoran chips than the ZR36707.
Are there any distributors that carry this chip (in case it turns out
to be bad?)
All Google comes up with are places that want you to send an RFQ. WTF?
If they have parts in stock, why can't they just give a price and
ordering information?

Mike

Hi!

Anybody have a datasheet or pinout for this Zoran ZR36707 chip?
Zoran's website is pretty worthless

Have you tried contacting them to see what they'd say?

DVD decoding is covered by many patents and licensing entities, and the DVD
CCA would certainly like you to think that nobody except a licensed decoder
manufacturer is to know how DVD encryption or playback works...but it might
be worth a try?

Sometimes there is a mess of NDAs and other crap, other times you can ask
and receive without too much trouble.

Are there any distributors that carry this chip (in case it turns out
to be bad?)

I doubt if you could buy just one, although you might talk Zoran into
sending you a sample.

If they have parts in stock, why can't they just give a price and
ordering information?

There sure are a world of these places. I don't know if they actually have
the parts for sale or not, but they'd like to be in the business of
liquidating what they do have, hopefully at a tidy profit. As above, they
probably won't want to sell just one piece, and if they do, cost is likely
to be prohibitive.

As it seems like this part is a DVD decoder SoC, have you checked the other
parts of the player to be sure they are working? I've seen a lot of bad
power supplies, some of which were fixable. Disc transport failure
(especially in the optical department) is also pretty common...a typical
symptom of this is failure to play a DVD while an audio CD will play
perfectly.

Heat is another enemy of these devices. Most of them run hot and I've only
seen a few that have any sort of heat spreader or heatsink. I have not seen
any with active cooling, outside of those built into all-in-one home theatre
systems.

William

On Mar 6, 2:15*am, "William R. Walsh"
m wrote:
Hi!

Anybody have a datasheet or pinout for this Zoran ZR36707 chip?
Zoran's website is pretty worthless

Have you tried contacting them to see what they'd say?

DVD decoding is covered by many patents and licensing entities, and the DVD
CCA would certainly like you to think that nobody except a licensed decoder
manufacturer is to know how DVD encryption or playback works...but it might
be worth a try?

Sometimes there is a mess of NDAs and other crap, other times you can ask
and receive without too much trouble.

I don't really need to know the DVD decoding methodology, just need to
find the I/O pins to probe to determine if the laser pickup or the
decoder board is bad. It's on a multilayer board, so I can't follow
the traces. This chip is an interface between the laser pickup and the
big 200 pin SoC. I assumed they would be secretive about the big
chip, as that's where the decoding takes place.

Are there any distributors that carry this chip (in case it turns out
to be bad?)

I doubt if you could buy just one, although you might talk Zoran into
sending you a sample.

If they have parts in stock, why can't they just give a price and
ordering information?

There sure are a world of these places. I don't know if they actually have
the parts for sale or not, but they'd like to be in the business of
liquidating what they do have, hopefully at a tidy profit. As above, they
probably won't want to sell just one piece, and if they do, cost is likely
to be prohibitive.

As it seems like this part is a DVD decoder SoC, have you checked the other
parts of the player to be sure they are working? I've seen a lot of bad
power supplies, some of which were fixable. Disc transport failure
(especially in the optical department) is also pretty common...a typical
symptom of this is failure to play a DVD while an audio CD will play
perfectly.

Yes, I ESR'd the caps in the power supply, they're all good. I even
did the lytics on the processor board.
The supplies were clean. The +/- 12 V were a little low, so I used my
bench supplies to bring them up to 12V,
no help. I also replaced the ribbon cable going to the pickup. The
player stopped playing both DVDs & CDs over a few months time, (it's
my mother-in-law's, it was working fine the last time we visited her)
but every now & then, it will play CDs all day, cycling power several
times, then the next day the same CDs just give "no disc" after
spinning up and trying to focus 3 times.

Heat is another enemy of these devices. Most of them run hot and I've only
seen a few that have any sort of heat spreader or heatsink. I have not seen
any with active cooling, outside of those built into all-in-one home theatre
systems.

William

Hi!

I don't really need to know the DVD decoding methodology, just need to
find the I/O pins to probe to determine if the laser pickup or the
decoder board is bad.

My guess is that the datasheet includes everything, and that they're
unlikely to excerpt it. But you never know...and that was why I suggested
just giving them a buzz.

Yes, I ESR'd the caps in the power supply, they're all good.

Good to know and have that out of the way.

but every now & then, it will play CDs all day, cycling power several
times, then the next day the same CDs just give "no disc" after
spinning up and trying to focus 3 times.

Couple of thoughts...and maybe you tried all of these...

What about flexing/poking/prodding/abusing the main board to see if the
effect comes and goes? Have you tried putting it in a cold place for a while
or using freeze spray? How about setting it near a sunny window and letting
it warm up?

How does the solder on the connectors for the ribbon cable look? Anything
questionable there?

William

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 21:26:54 -0800 (PST), Mike WB2MEP
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Anybody have a datasheet or pinout for this Zoran ZR36707 chip?
Zoran's website is pretty worthless, and the datasheet sites bring up
sheets for different Zoran chips than the ZR36707.
Are there any distributors that carry this chip (in case it turns out
to be bad?)
All Google comes up with are places that want you to send an RFQ. WTF?
If they have parts in stock, why can't they just give a price and
ordering information?

Mike

Google turns up several service manuals for devices that use that
chip:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...&btnG=S earch

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Mar 9, 3:59*am, Franc Zabkar wrote:
On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 21:26:54 -0800 (PST), Mike WB2MEP
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Anybody have a datasheet or pinout for this Zoran ZR36707 chip?
Zoran's website is pretty worthless, and the datasheet sites bring up
sheets for different Zoran chips than the ZR36707.
Are there any distributors that carry this chip (in case it turns out
to be bad?)
All Google comes up with are places that want you to send an RFQ. WTF?
If they have parts in stock, why can't they just give a price and
ordering information?

Mike

Google turns up several service manuals for devices that use that
chip:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...ZR36707%22&btn...

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Thanks, Franc,

I didn't think of searching by filetype, it sure eliminates all the
useless chip vendors and other "noise".
I've had to put this DVD player on back burner, and move on to another
one I also ordered a ribbon cable for, one of those portables with the
folding LCD screen. I was curious as to who made its chip set, as I
didn't recognize the logo - a tall uppercase "M" with rings around the
bottom, so I did some Googling on the part numbers. (It turned out to
be MediaTek). I also found some service manuals for players using that
chip. The SMs are actually more useful than the datasheets for
troubleshooting. With so much integrated onto 1 or 2 chips, the basic
design for different players using the same chip set is mostly the
same. With the complete lack of product support on late-model DVD
players, I didn't think of looking for service manuals, I just assumed
there were none available.